Trinity Catholic's Will Egan is surrounded by Greenwich defenders as he tries to regain control of the puck near the net during Saturday's FCIAC quarterfinal at Terry Conners Rink in Stamford, Conn., on March 1, 2014. less

Trinity Catholic's Will Egan is surrounded by Greenwich defenders as he tries to regain control of the puck near the net during Saturday's FCIAC quarterfinal at Terry Conners Rink in Stamford, Conn., on March ... more

The Crusaders weathered the storm in a scoreless first period as No. 5 Greenwich (9-11-1) dominated puck possession and spent a great deal of time in the Trinity zone.

Trinity Catholic was opportunistic in the second period. Joey Nelson cashed in on a blocked pass with 8:32 left for 1-0. And freshman Liam Shanahan tallied with 3:51 left in the second period on a low-screened slap shot from the right point for 2-0. Overall, Greenwich goalie Bryan Archino was solid in net with 16 saves.

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"Scoring the first goal of the game was a big confidence boost for us," Trinity's Odierno said. "Getting that first goal makes you believe you can win."

With the 2-0 edge, Trinity Catholic was able to steal passes in center ice and dump the puck and cycle it to keep the Greenwich offense at bay through most of the third period.

Also, Trinity Catholic didn't give the Greenwich powerplay any life except for a pair of penalties in the third period.

The Crusaders had a great kill on Carmine DeRubeis' interference penalty with 8:43 to play.

And Colin Bernard -- who was more conservative than usual from his defense post -- took a good hooking penalty with 1:20 to go when Luke Finneran was breaking in alone on Odierno. Greenwich rang the post with 32 seconds left but it was too little, too late.

"My guys made it easy for me," Odierno said. "They kept the Greenwich attackmen to the outside."

After the final buzzer, all parties agreed that Odierno (30 saves) was the key factor in the contest.

"Nothing Kyle does surprises me anymore. He's so mentally sound out there," Trinity Catholic head coach Kenny Smith said. "Kyle is our rock but our guys were all very responsible on the defensive end. My assistants Mike Bernard and Pete Stokes came up with a good game plan. And Greenwich didn't get a lot of amazing chances."

And now, Greenwich -- which entered having gone 5-1-1 in its last seven regular season contests -- will focus on the upcoming Division I state tournament where it is currently the No. 15 seed.

"We played our best in the first period but didn't convert any chances. We got stopped on a breakaway in the second period," Greenwich coach Bob Russel said. "When they scored the first goal, that was huge. Our problem was we couldn't get to the front of the net. There was little traffic. We couldn't screen Odierno. We couldn't get a rebound.

"Overall our team has progressed well. Our level of play of late has improved," Russel continued. "I'm happy overall. We won't be an easy out against whoever we meet in the states."